University of Washington recognizes importance of female engineers

We applaud your front-page story on women who are stepping up to a critical leadership role in engineering in Washington state [“Engineering’s new face,” page one, Oct. 15].

We visited Seattle earlier this week for a National Engineering Forum dialogue, hosted by the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and attended by some of the top engineering and business minds in the region. The dialogue addressed many of the same challenges reporter Katherine Long raised.

The National Engineering Forum is focused on increasing the capacity of our workforce to fill future engineering jobs, their capability to address 21st century challenges, and how to increase our competitiveness through engineering on the world stage. Increasing the ranks of female engineers and engineering leaders from diverse backgrounds goes a long way to addressing each one of those “three Cs.”

Kudos to the University of Washington and The Seattle Times for recognizing the important contributions female engineers make to innovation, security and prosperity.

Jeff Wilcox and Deborah Wince-Smith, co-founders of the National Engineering Forum, Washington, D.C.

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